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Orange County DA raids law firm accused of political bullying

October 17, 2013

bully1Smear campaigns and legal threats directed at political reformers are beginning to draw the attention of law enforcement in California. [LA Times]

Last week, Orange County District Attorney investigators raided a law firm that is accused of bullying political leaders across Southern California.

The Upland law firm Lackie, Dammeir, McGill & Ethir that represents police unions in Southern California announced last month it would dissolve. The firm is currently facing a lawsuit from Costa Mesa city leaders, who allege they were harassed for political gain.

Since last year, Orange County prosecutors have investigated accusations that a private investigator working for the law firm followed Costa Mesa Mayor, Jim Righeimer, home from a bar and reported him to the police for drunk driving. An officer arrived at Righeimer’s door and administered a sobriety test.

Righeimer, who is an advocate of police pension reform and was a councilman at the time, passed the test and then produced a receipt from the bar showing he had only purchased two diet cokes.

In September 2012, investigators obtained a search warrant for the home of Chris Lanzillo, the private investigator accused of following Righeimer.

After the Righeimer incident, officials in other cities, too, accused Lackei, Dammeir, McGill & Ethir of bullying.

The firm’s website, which was taken down last year, listed tactics in its “playbook” of offensives on city leaders.

“Focus on a city manager, councilperson, mayor or police chief and keep the pressure up until that person assures you his loyalty and then move on to the next victim,” the site said.

The website also listed tactics that included, work stoppages, “blue flu” strikes, storming city council meetings, holding officials up for public ridicule and targeting individuals.

“GardenGroveSucks.com was a big hit,” the site noted as an example of its style of political campaigning.

 


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Civil Service jobs already have representation, as appointed by our publics elected officials. It appears that unions have become a disservice when representing public employees because we taxpayers support their revenue stream too. What a slick deal!


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Is anyone surprised. Unions have the three political party, especially in California, Chicago, New Jersey, New York. They say hop and the democrats say how far. I use to support unions, in years past they fought some mighty goo causes, women’s rights, child work protection, benefits for the working class. Now, they have become the mafia of America. Look at the rally held in Washington DC last week, while prohibiting the WWII veterans from their monument, Obama, Pelosi and Reid under the financial support of the SEIU paid for the Illegal Rally. Americans will be surprised when we get those 16 million illegals and they take the American jobs. Already in California, they have passed the law for domestic care for overtime under the watchful eye of the unions. Yep, they will be paying the dues in a few years and we will be on the food stamp/housing/welfare rolls. Nice!


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Sure, there are some bad birds; but they pale in comparison to the bullies, dictators, plutocrats, and economic mafiosos in right wing think tanks and other corporate lobbying groups.


The next time you’re in trouble, call some of them …not the cops.


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The accusations about the “bullies, dictators, plutocrats, and economic mafiosos in right wing think tanks and other corporate lobbying groups” is fairly accurate but the unions mentioned here are not the ones that they have suppressed in the past.


Public employee unions may be necessary to protect the rights of their members to some small degree but they have too much power because the people with whom they negotiate (politicians and bureaucrats) are not the ones facing economic consequences for being overly generous. We taxpayers are the ones that suffer and as long as we can be brainwashed into accepting new taxes as necessary to maintain the services we get from government, most politicians will not fight for our long-term economic interests. After all, they will have moved on by the time the economic consequences really hit.


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People who live and breath divisive politics will never understand or acknowledge this.


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Right Wing Think Tanks and Corporate Lobbying groups are bullies, plutocrates…? Last time that I checked they weren’t extorting employees to pay mandatory dues to be able to work like the unions.


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Yes they are, they can just not pay enough and let us pick up the tab.


http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-15/mcdonalds-low-wages-come-with-a-7-billion-side-of-welfare


Corporate Lobbying groups are how things got so screwed up in the first place.


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It seems as though unions can hardly be described as bargaining units anymore. They have no shame when it comes to intimidation or (legally) bribing politicians to win their benefits. This case is probably rare but unions have become a political force so strong that the voter is barely heard over the union lobby. What a stupid public we have become. Hey when’s the next Housewives of Beverly Hills episode?


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Have you seen the “protests” at many of the fast food chains and Walmart over the last few months. No Grass Roots efforts. All organized by Unions and the protestors are all Union affiliates.


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Really? ” All organized by Unions” own walmart stock?


http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/Diverse-group-protests-for-higher-minimum-wage-4776465.php


“A full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal this week sponsored by the Employment Policies Institute, a business-funded think tank, showed a giant photo of a robot making food. That could portend the future if restaurants are forced to pay $15 an hour for fast food workers.”


Oh look a ” Corporate Lobbying groups” with scare tactics, what a surprise.


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Damn those people providing jobs. Screwing up the world by giving us jobs.


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